Environ. Sci. Technol. 2010, 44, 4341–4347
Perfluorinated Compounds in Whole Blood Samples from Infants, Children, and Adults in China T A O Z H A N G , †,‡ Q I A N W U , ‡ H O N G W E N S U N , * ,† XIAN ZHONG ZHANG,† SE HUN YUN,‡ A N D K U R U N T H A C H A L A M K A N N A N * ,‡,§ MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, and Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, State University of New York at Albany, and International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
Received January 20, 2010. Revised manuscript received April 4, 2010. Accepted April 22, 2010.
Two hundred and forty five human blood (whole blood) samples from Chinese donors aged from 0 to 90 yrs were analyzed for 10 perfluorinated compounds (PFCs). Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were the most abundant PFCs found in blood. The median concentration of PFOS was lower in nonadults (i.e., infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents) (2.52-5.55 ng/mL) than in adults (8.07 ng/mL). However, median concentration of PFOA in nonadults (1.23-2.42 ng/mL) was higher than that found in adults (1.01 ng/ mL). A significant increase in PFOS (r ) 0.468, p < 0.01) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) (r ) 0.357, p < 0.01) concentrations with age was found, while PFOA concentrations (r ) -0.344, p < 0.01) were negatively correlated with age. No significant gender-related differences in PFC concentrations were found across all ages. The composition profiles of PFCs, as identified by principal component analysis, varied for each age group; this suggested differences in sources and pathways of exposure to PFCs for different age groups. Based on the blood PFC concentration, we estimated the daily intake of PFOS by adults using a one-compartment toxicokinetic model. The modeled daily intake of PFOS agreed well with the calculated daily intake via diet and indoor dust (0.74 vs 1.19 ng/kg b.w. for males, 1.20 vs 1.15 ng/kg b.w. for females) suggesting that dietary intake and dust ingestion are the major exposure routes to PFOS exposure in China. This is the first comprehensive study on PFCs in human blood from infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents in China. The data are valuable for understanding the sources and pathways of human exposure to PFCs for different age groups.
* Address correspondence to either author. Phone: +1-518-4740015 (K.K.); +86-22-23509241 (H.S.). Fax: +1-518-473-2895 (K.K.); +86-22-23509241 (H.S.). E-mail:
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[email protected] (S.H.). † Nankai University. ‡ State University of New York at Albany. § Harbin Institute of Technology. 10.1021/es1002132
2010 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 05/04/2010
Introduction Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) comprise of a large group of man-made chemicals consisting of a fully fluorinated alkyl chain, with different polar functional groups (1). Since the 1950s, PFCs have been used worldwide in a variety of industrial and commercial products such as lubricants, paints, polishes, fire-fighting foams, and food packaging (2, 3). In recent years, concerns about the occurrence of PFCs in foods (4–6), indoor dust (5, 7, 8), and humans (9–18) have been raised. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are the most abundant PFCs in humans around the world (2, 9–12). In Australia (9), a study on PFCs in pooled serum samples suggested that the concentrations of PFOS were higher in adult males than in adult females, while no gender differences were found for serum pools from children (
